How did you get to this point in your life? Looking back at the trajectory of your life can help you to understand why God is putting you in certain situations or bringing certain people into your life. What are the life experiences you have had and what choices have you made that brought you to where you are today? Don't stop there. Take a look into the future. Where is God calling you to be? Do you like the type of work you are doing? Are you surrounding by people who are lifting you up or dragging you down? What are you doing in that situation to change it? Are you praying for people who are causing you strife? What is most important to you? How can you look at past mistakes and sins and learn from them? Take a look at Matthew 22:36-40 and 26:26-28. Pray on those sacred words and ask God to help you with this examin. The answers we seek are with God and all we need do is ask. I am praying that your Lenten journey brings you closer to God.
The spiritual climax of the Gospel of John, as Father John Waiss points out, occurs at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus utters his parting words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). While these words were addressed to the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the Church has long understood this moment as a universal adoption. To truly image Christ, we must share in His parentage; if we embrace God as our spiritual Father but reject Mary as our mother, we treat Christ as a half-brother rather than our "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). As Origen noted as early as the third century, the profound depths of the Gospel are only accessible to those who, like John, rest their heads on Jesus’ breast and receive Mary into their own homes. This maternal role is deeply rooted in biblical typology, positioning Mary as the fulfillment of the great mothers of the Old Covenant. She is the New Eve , the mother of all the living according ...